Due to the environmental crisis, technologies to replace fossil fuel are of high importance and undergoing expedited improvements. Accounting for 42% of the energy consumption in Ireland, transportation has the potential to impact massively on the reduction of CO2 emissions. Prior to the success of the model T, the ballooning population in major cities such as New York resulted in tens of thousands of horse drawn carriages on the streets daily. The cities became plagued with horse manure and streets became blocked, flies gathered, and disease spread. The environment was literally being destroyed at the hands of humans for their need to travel. However, the crisis was solved by the revolution of the conventional vehicle by Henry Ford. Skip to over 100 years later and we find ourselves in a similar situation. Again, the environment is being destroyed. In this context, the horse manure crisis equates to the climate crises and the horse manure itself, to CO2 emissions. To overcome this, a successor to the internal combustion engine is desperately needed to revolutionize how we power our cars on a global scale. Are electric vehicles the answer? Could Elon Musk be the great Henry Ford of our time? Or will another alternative energy source prove to be the solution to the energy crisis?
With electric vehicles holding a strong position in clean transport and the Irish Government anticipating close to 1,000,000 EVs on the roads and an anticipated ban on new fossil fuel cars by 2030 (sounds ambitious, doesn’t it?), the next ten years will see a dramatic redirection from carbon emitting fuels to clean energy to power our cars. Another technology such as hydrogen fuel cells may well be the saving grace if they prove to beat the EV on its shortcomings.
The electric vehicle industry has been improving on its downfalls while the vast majority of the public remains unconvinced, clinging to the shortcomings of the modern BEV’s (Battery Electric Vehicle) predecessors and continues to lean in favor of the familiar and reliable combustion engine vehicle. In truth, the concerns of charging and travel distance are valid. It's a lot to ask from a car buyer to allocate careful planning and research on charging port locations for longer trips when their combustion engine vehicle never caused them the same hassle. While some electric car models have long travel distances, such as the Teslas which can travel 500km before charging, the more affordable to the average person models have a travel distance of between 200 and 300km. While charging can be done at home overnight, and most drivers simply drive to and from work, a travel distance such as this can be acceptable. However, everyone has been in a situation of forgetting to charge their mobile phone at night, only to find out in the morning. The consequences of forgetting to charge your car at night do not bare thinking about!
Despite the concerns, there is clearly a future for EVs. Given the current environmental circumstances, people are becoming more eco-conscious and government incentives and grants will encourage car buyers to look at electric vehicles. Car manufacturers have pledged to spend $225 billion on further developing EVs in the very near future. Companies like Tesla are pioneering a standard of EV that all car buyers now expect and therefore competing companies must follow suit. There is a sense that technological advancements in this industry are being expedited and the next few years will see a ripple effect as EVs become more and more viable.
Hydrogen, the underdog of clean transport energy and once a viable competitor of the EV, got left behind as electric powered vehicles were chosen as the favorable candidate to succeed. Hydrogen fuel-cells have comparable refuel times and travel distance to our beloved combustion engine vehicle. Theoretically, this technology ticked all the boxes as a suitable sustainable travel fuel so why didn’t it succeed?
Firstly, as is the case with entering any market and competing with successful industries, cost of infrastructure is a big prohibiting factor. Refuel stations need to be built and fuel transport and storage systems need to be established. Electricity on the other hand, doesn’t need to be transported or ‘stored’ in the physical sense that hydrogen does. Building charging infrastructure for EVs may well have been less costly than establishing a hydrogen fuel transport and storage system.
The electric vehicle managed to spark the interest of car manufacturers to contribute funds for technological advancements and a promise of future developments. Now that electric vehicles are well developed and becoming more and more affordable, it is difficult for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to compete. Elon Musk has been quoted calling them “fool-cells” while bashing the technology as stupid. Given his dominant stature in the clean energy vehicle industry, comments like this can tarnish the public image of hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars and result in electric vehicle manufacturers monopolizing the future of clean energy transport.
With reluctance to invest in the less known technology and therefore lack of infrastructure, the hydrogen powered vehicle has some obstacles to overcome. However, given its elimination of the charging woes and driving distance that remain issues with the electric vehicle, and the fact that hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on the planet, it seems that it may be the perfect solution to the crisis. There is hope as some much needed support comes out of hydrogen advocate Japan, as Toyota car manufacturer backs the clean energy technology's corner
In conclusion, though it may appear that EVs have won the race to a sustainable solution in the clean transport industry, receiving investment, interest and reasonable public support, there are still issues that plague this technology; charging times and travel distance being the most dominant. Another technology, like hydrogen fuel-cells, may well be the technology which becomes more affordable, convenient, meets our ever growing travel demands, and become the revolutionary solution we need to decarbonize our transport industry.